Antisemitism

An inaccurate etymological misnomer. In current widespread use to demonise people deemed to be threatenting to cherished Judaic official narratives and to close down rational debate.

"Antisemitism" File:Glossary.png link (Polarising perspective, prejudice, plastic word)
File:BW anti-semite.jpg
Type	political
Start	1879
An etymological misnomer with no clear meaning. In current widespread use to demonise people deemed to be threatening to cherished Judaic official narratives and to close down rational debate. Nowadays it is often used against people who defenders of Israel don't like.

Antisemite (root - semite; adjective - antisemitic; derivative - antisemitism; etymology - a person opposed to "Semites", is a person with hostility, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. In recent times, this plastic word has been used to also refer to any criticism of Israel .

Origins

Watch on YouTube

How Israel And Its Allies Weaponize Antisemitism

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica entry written by Michael Berenbaum, the term was originally coined by Wilhelm Marr in 1897 to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns under way in central Europe at that time . It was coined because the term "Semite" had become a popular euphemism for "Jew", use of which in anything other than approving terms and in similar fashion to today, invited immediate hostility and condemnation from Jewish leaders. It remains in widespread use and with similar notional meaning in Official Narratives and with its root "Semite" meaning "Jew/Jewish/Judaic".

However, in semantic terms it is a gross and confusing misnomer in that semitic defines a group of languages far more accurately than it does race or religion and in both usages it encompasses vastly more non-Jewish (especially Arab) than Jewish peoples – which renders it particularly absurd in the context of the Middle East.

Inversion

In the nineteenth century it was used as much as a self-description by people wishing to proclaim their dislike or opposition to Jewry; whereas in nowadays the term "antisemite" is used as an exonym to describe those opposed by the Israel lobby.

It has no substantive meaning other than as an insulting epithet and, like its close relative "Holocaust Denier", its primary usage is to demonise and close down rational debate on matters deemed offensive or otherwise critical of important Judaic Official Narratives.

Gilad Atzmon noted that {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Antisemitism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=|+sep=, |Has text=“The more Jewish bodies campaign against anti-Semitism the more opposition to Jewish politics is detected.” |Is about=Antisemitism,Antisemitism|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=13 May 2019 |Sourced from=The Unz Review |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle=Antisemitism Is Now a Mass Movement in Britain |Has sourceName=The Unz Review |Has sourceURL=https://www.unz.com/gatzmon/antisemitism-is-now-a-mass-movement-in-britain/ }}“The more Jewish bodies campaign against anti-Semitism the more opposition to Jewish politics is detected.”

Fear of the Anti-Semitic label

Roger Waters was quoted in 2016, stating about the music industry: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Antisemitism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Roger Waters|+sep=, |Has text=“My industry has been particularly recalcitrant in even raising a voice [against Israel]. There’s me and Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Manic Street Preachers, one or two others, but there’s nobody in the United States where I live. I’ve talked to a lot of them, and they are scared s***less. [...] If they say something in public they will no longer have a career. They will be destroyed.” |Is about=Antisemitism,Music industry|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=21 February 2016 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/roger-waters-pink-floyd-israel-boycott-ban-palestine-a6884971.html

}}

“My industry has been particularly recalcitrant in even raising a voice [against Israel]. There’s me and Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Manic Street Preachers, one or two others, but there’s nobody in the United States where I live. I’ve talked to a lot of them, and they are scared s***less. [...] If they say something in public they will no longer have a career. They will be destroyed.”
Roger Waters (21 February 2016) 

"Anti-semitic, it's a trick we always use it"

A former Israeli minister said about the charge of antisemitism: {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Antisemitism |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Shulamit Aloni|+sep=, |Has text=“Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic. And the organization is strong, and has a lot of money, and the ties between Israel and the American Jewish establishment are very strong and they are strong in this country, as you know.” |Is about=Antisemitism,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=August 14, 2002 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails=initially broadcast on Democracy Now in an interview with Amy Goodman |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-minister-called-accusation-anti-semitism-trick-silence-criticism-israel-video/

}}

“Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic. And the organization is strong, and has a lot of money, and the ties between Israel and the American Jewish establishment are very strong and they are strong in this country, as you know.”
Shulamit Aloni (August 14, 2002) 

It is rare to hear this sort of truth stated quite so boldly. The video is from a Democracy Now interview of former Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni by Ami Goodman.

Usage by Controlled Media

In 2015, Stephen Sizer was vilified by the commercially-controlled media and disciplined by the establishment who claimed that merely posting a Facebook link to the Wikispooks page "9-11/Israel did it" (not even alleging that he believed the contents were true), was in itself an "anti-semitic" act.

Peter Drew, UK Coordinator for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, asked the Church of England:

"Has the Church of England ever asked our government officials and media to provide evidence of their allegations against Muslims, or if they can’t provide this evidence then to stop spreading these false allegations about Muslims being the perpetrators of 9/11?"

Application to Jews

In 2018 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticised as being "anti-semitic" after breaking bread at the Passover with the Jewish group Jewdas, which were described as a "non-mainstream" group.

In 2014, The Tower described Richard Falk as an "Anti-Semitic, Anti-American Conspiracy Theorist".

UK

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 40 months imprisonment "for stirring up racial hatred against the Jewish community in Golders Green" after carrying out what The Register termed an "anti-Semitic Twitter campaign against MP" Luciana Berger:

"Any stats person will tell you that the comment ‘Antisemitism is rife in the Labour Party’ can only be valid when set against a measure of AS in society and AS in equivalent organisations. Every sociology student knows this."

ICCA declaration

In February 2009, the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA) spearheaded by John Mann MP brought together Members of Parliament from all over the world to improve the way in which Parliaments and Governments fight antisemitism ensuring that laws are adequate and implemented and that best practices are shared appropriately. The ICCA, consisting of more than 700 Members in over 60 countries, saw its London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism signed by as many MPs, Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Prime Ministers.

Home Affairs Select Committee

On 16 October 2016, Tim Loughton, the acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, published the Committee's report on "antisemitism" which unanimously recommended limits on political free speech. The six Tory MPs, three New Labour and one SNP were unanimous in urging that:

• the term ‘Zionist’ be allowed only in an academically neutral or positive tone; using the term in an “accusatory“ manner should be categorised as “inflammatory” by all political parties and lead to criminal charges;
• criminal penalties as well as workplace sanctions be applied to those who:

identify the State of Israel as “a racist endeavour”; or,

compare Israeli behaviour in any way with that of the Nazis.

SNP Deputy Leader Angus Robertson told the enquiry that dialogue on Palestine in the SNP must take place only “within the context of supporting a two-state solution, and inherent in that is an acknowledgement of the right of self-determination for the Jewish people and the right of the State of Israel to exist”.

Robertson thus endorsed, and HASC adopted, the key elements of the discredited EUMC definition of antisemitism. Although never formally accepted by any representative body, the UK College of Policing has adopted it as guidelines. UK Government Minister Eric Pickles endorsed the definition in March of this year which would criminalise identifying the State of Israel as “a racist endeavour” or comparisons of the activities of the Israeli State in any way with that of the Nazis.

Angus Robertson MP claimed that anti-Zionism is a gateway to antisemitism rather than an antidote to it. According to the Committee “some people move from referring to ‘the Government of Israel’ to talking about ‘Israel’; then to ‘Zionists’, and then ‘some people start talking about Jews’; adding that “at some point along that line it morphs into antisemitism”. This ignores the never-ending efforts of organised political Zionists to conflate opposition to the programme of ethnic cleansing in Palestine with hatred of Jewish people - as if opposition to Apartheid, a system of White supremacy, was really hatred of white people!

This report backed by Tory, SNP and New Labour will criminalise large areas of free speech on Israel/Palestine. At a time when the Palestinian people face ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, the members of this Committee have betrayed the Palestinians and joined an attack orchestrated by the Israeli Embassy to smother rising anger at Israel’s crimes.

Labour antisemitism

At PMQs on 19 October 2016, Theresa May admonished the Labour leader:

“Given the report of the select committee of this House about anti-Semitism and the approach to anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, he needs to think very carefully about the environment that is being created in the Labour Party in relation to anti-Semitism.”

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Labour anti-cementism: no concrete evidence

However, Jeremy Corbyn had previously said the HASC's findings focused too heavily on his party, when three-quarters of anti-Semitic incidents were carried out by the far-right:

"The report’s political framing and disproportionate emphasis on Labour risks undermining the positive and welcome recommendations made in it."

No concrete evidence

On 12 October 2021, Art Crunchy tweeted:

People in the media were very keen to find anti-cementism in the Labour Party without any concrete evidence.

EUMC "working definition"

In 2005, the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), now the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), adopted the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s (CAA) “working definition on antisemitism” which is used by the European Parliament Working Group on Antisemitism, the UK College of Policing, the US Department of State, and the 31 countries comprising the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance:

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The CAA gave these examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace and in the religious sphere:

• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
• Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

References